


Ranma Versus The Universe

by Valentine20xx



Category: Ranma 1/2
Genre: Akane barely features, Meddling Happosai, Multi, Smart Ranma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-24 03:56:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20351995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valentine20xx/pseuds/Valentine20xx
Summary: For Ranma, he only has one choice for his future, to date and marry Akane Tendo, despite the fact that he should really have many more choices.What if that was because someone, discreetly, was making all his choices for him?And what if, due to the fact no-one noticed Kasumi, he'd found a way to make them ANYWAY?A war has begun, between Ranma and a twisted destiny. And Ranma Saotome Doesn't Lose..





	Ranma Versus The Universe

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Ranma ½ © Rumiko Takahashi, and is used without permission.
> 
> This story began as a simple 'What If'. "What if someone was messing with Ranma's life at a conceptual level, and forcing him into making the less desirable or honourable choices?", and then throws in the strange fandom rule that seems to state 'As soon as Ranma sits down to the Tendo Arrangement in a story, Everything About It IS Gospel', and turns it on it's head.  
This story implies the reason he can't get out of it is that someone other than Genma or Soun doesn't want the Tendo and Saotome family to do anything BUT create yet another generation of students of Anything Goes, and keep the Art alive.  
This would be intending to put Ranma into a mindset where saving his own skin means far more than his own personal honour, literally ensuring another Genma or Soun was always in Ranma's future, and all his attempts to hide the curse or make the best of it were for nothing? And no, It's not Nabiki. She doesn't have the contacts to arrange rearranging the fabric of the universe... but someone else _is_ old enough, and crafty enough, to play a really _really_ long con.

There was a reason Soun and Genma both feared Happosai. He'd crafted them both in his own image, literally, with the only mistake being accidentally causing an accident for the wrong wife, which he'd not apologised for. Happosai didn't do apologies. It wasn't in his nature to apologise for anything, it was to lie, cheat and steal with anything and anyone, especially his students.  
It had taken a few years for Genma to find out that the much desired terrible accident Nodoka would have during the training trip had accidentally claimed Soun's wife instead, meaning one more problem for Happosai's latest project. The Tendo agreement had no legal standing, but Genma and Soun had known that gentleman's agreements were iron-clad when Happosai got involved. Any problems went away before they even became problems.  
Thankfully, in Genma's case, Ranma was set upon the right path, having accepted the choice of Akane, who was plain, prone to violent outbursts and horribly tsundere, but that was perfect for what, behind closed doors, Happosai wanted, and there was no signs he'd forced the issue. Admittedly, There wasn't normally.  
The fact he had half a dozen girls all chasing after him made him a hero among his peers, and made sure that Nodoka never saw Ranma's ridiculous notion of Honour Before Reason, instead seeing a raging lothario who broke girl's hearts. So what if women hated him? They hated Happosai _worse_.  
The master was known as a pervert and a lecher who stole women's underwear. And considering Ranma would need to learn those kind of techniques to become Grand Master, his misguided beliefs in Honour Before Reason would just get him hurt. Akane was the perfect girlfriend for Ranma, having no time for him being with other girls, even though Ranma was surrounded by them.  
And it would guarantee the schools would last into the next century, which was win-win in a lot of people's books. So what if it ruined Ranma's reputation?

Ranma was the future of Anything Goes. And that meant his reputation had to be as bad as possible, in case the school actually turned honest, a situation that _would __**never**__ stand. _Grand Master Happosai would **_ensure it._**

What no-one knew was that Ranma was smart enough to see through the fake platitudes and insane number of challengers that were meant to keep him distracted, and had actually made sure that neither Soun nor Genma, and especially not Happosai, would look in the right direction. He already knew that if he moved away from some undefined narrow route in what he was doing, he was, with the discretion of the US military, pushed back into doing his role. So he'd used the one person Happosai didn't suspect, and actually was so unobtrusive that Happosai didn't seemingly actually look her way _at all_...

_Kasumi._

It had all began when they'd rearranged the bedrooms when they changed phone supplier, and it was decided to move Nabiki's trunk line. As a result, Kasumi's bedroom was right next to the Saotome bedroom, a training accident smashing a hole in a poorly installed part of the cavity wall insulation. As a result, they were able to turn that portion of wall into a dead drop location.  
Kasumi had helped him, by making increasingly obtuse detours when shopping, in organising investigations and similar. Ranma had been surprised when information came effectively flowing in, when any time he'd tried to look into it had been stone walled by what he knew was Happosai. As a result, The main thing tucked into the hole was a copy of a thick folder, which was ready to be submitted to the proper authorities.  
When they got the contents, Akane would get a nice spot in an isolation ward as she went through therapy for her anger issues, and the Chinese Amazons had likely been told by their own embassy to Japan that they'd sign off on their immigration papers, backdated to when they arrived, without a large fine, if they ignored the growing number of people who they could potentially have put to death due to obstructing their laws and just backed off.  
The only other thing in there was a small money chest, inside which was the money earned from various activities, due to Ranma having his own pockets picked any time he actually had enough money to feed himself, so Genma was always financially solvent despite his excesses. Both him and Kasumi had a roll of a 100 thousand yen for emergencies involving Nabiki. She always found a way to earn her next manga.  
The only other time it was temporarily unaccounted for was if the numbers on the notes were sequential. Nabiki didn't accept them, and neither did they. A full roll of sequential numbers were almost undoubtedly dirty. There were some things he appreciated about having a mercenary in the house. She could indirectly drum into him how to best keep his money safe.

As he woke up, he moved the wardrobe, the most useful security feature, chuckling at his father's attempt, by lying in an awkward position, to notice when it happened, and greeted Kasumi with a smile as she slid the ledger back in, the money for the groceries in her hand. Since the house finances only accepted withdrawals through Hole-In-The-Wall banking, both Soun and Genma's sake habit had dropped in cost, as well as impact towards the home.  
"Ranma, I'm showing a large payment towards Nabiki..." Kasumi stated.  
"She found a way to persuade Father to help finance a camera for the front door. Hadn't yet looked through the first set of pictures, but the date stamps showed you were safe. I paid her off to remove the camera before she did get pictures of your comings and goings, since she'd notice the time discrepancy if I just unplugged it, and her new trunk line means she can store copies online..." Ranma replied, "I'll show you where she moved the camera to later..."  
"Talking of Nabiki..." Kasumi stated, "The investigation has come up clean on her outside of her mercenary activities, She's not been bought by anyone. I'd like to bring her into your confidence on this, I'm already losing one sister to someone's misguided idea of an arranged marriage..."  
"Take what we know to Nabiki, don't let her know I started the investigation, just come at her as a concerned older sister..." Ranma stated, "But here's the deal. One roll, your dance attire, face obscured."  
Kasumi nodded. Later, when he pocketed the original copies, he didn't know it, but that one set of actions would save him more than the several billion spent on the folder, since he'd created a paper trail that lead away from the folder.

However, Due to Ranma showing his hand with Nabiki, Happosai had discovered the folder. It was something he couldn't let stay. Within hours, Happosai had the folder retrieved, going white at how much he'd missed. Just this one item could destroy the School, the Engagement...  
Ranma was on the cusp of bringing the whole house of cards that Happosai had spent so long building. A few twists of reality, and the folder in front of him, and it's current contents, effectively ceased to exist, money returning to whence it came, numbers in various places changing to suit the new status quo, where Ranma didn't have leverage on almost everyone...  
Why he didn't have anything on Nabiki, he didn't know.

Unknown to him, however, Kasumi was sitting in a meeting, of sorts, with her sister, and the missing information on her was still in her hands.  
"Kasumi, What brings you here?" Nabiki asked, frowning at the item she was holding, especially when she looked towards where Nabiki's accounts were. She shouldn't be looking at her accounts. Nabiki didn't want to lose her sister. She'd had to do a lot of bad things to keep those accounts private. A few hundred yen didn't affect anyone, but when she went beyond that...  
"Hmm… Not quite the same, but… Ah yes, that's this month's statement..." Kasumi muttered as she studied something in the folder. Nabiki was alarmed as she realised that Kasumi was holding a copy of her account statements, meaning this was far from a courtesy call.  
"What do you want, dear sister?" Nabiki asked, her tone frosty. She already knew the payment to move the camera was not for Ranma, and this confirmed it. Kasumi was not always going out to do shopping or other mundane tasks.  
"Me and another concerned person have been studying your accounts, trying to judge if you're truly aware of quite how deep the rabbit hole goes..." Kasumi stated, "Have you noticed how I don't actually use the house finances for the shopping?"  
Nabiki's eyebrow shot up, as she checked some numbers. Kasumi hadn't withdrawn a single penny from what she knew was the house accounts, only the regular land rates and other bills coming out of it, and Soun's council pay cheque going in. It was so regular, so unobtrusive, that she'd never noticed that the account was just left to tick over. The quality of the food had discreetly improved, but nothing had changed outside of that.  
"OK, So why are you off the grid?" Nabiki asked, "Is it because I have most of the accounts locked down?"  
"Because, until now, I couldn't trust even _you_ with the house finances..." Kasumi stated, letting her look at the folder. Every scheme, every supposedly 'black' payment, neatly accounted for in Kasumi's neat handwriting, with enough here to destroy her network and ruin her in minutes, "Now, I am willing to offer you a once-in-a-lifetime deal. The real Kasumi, one roll of it, and that folder gets buried, for you to start working for me and my associate..."  
"I already know the real..." Nabiki began, for Kasumi to put a single picture in front of her. It was borderline indecent, it would make any of the fiancées jealous… and it was clearly her sister, "Fuck me... If that went round the usual contacts, you'd be dead. So, what's your angle?"  
"Your target, if you choose to accept one roll of pictures like that..." Kasumi stated, "We want you to find out the truth about our mother, We... We want..."  
She paused, looking towards the door before she sighed. "Nabiki Tendo, Me and Ranma want you to lay completely bare the truth about The Saotome School of Anything Goes and the Tendo School Of Indiscriminate Grappling..."  
"For a single roll of pictures like that, I'd get you the three sizes of the Emperor's concubine, and, for the folder getting buried, I wouldn't sell them either," Nabiki stated, "Kasumi, tell me, honestly..."  
"I changed my mind," Kasumi replied simply, then left for her room with the folder. The same obfuscation that meant Kasumi had not been noticed collating the information meant that much smaller folder was not even touched. What Kasumi didn't notice was that she had to do the talk twice, forgetting to ask about the pictures the second time, Happosai getting sloppy.

The following morning, Ranma was checking the ledger, to frown. The numbers were way too high. Checking a second ledger, he went pale. That precious folder was missing. The folder which had been used as a chilling effect on Nabiki was put in there a few minutes after he'd checked the ledgers, Ranma looking at Kasumi, who checked the ledgers the same way, putting in the 'new' folder.  
"Odd… If it wasn't for that folder, I'd have considered something disappearing from the hole to be Nabiki. She caved easily thankfully. Just the thought her accounts are recorded somewhere she can't control terrifies her," Kasumi admitted, Nabiki coming into view as she was finishing, leafing through the two ledgers.  
"Well, that explains why they stopped having free money for sake... And I guess Kasumi has quite a large fanbase wherever she does dance..." Nabiki quipped, "Would think you'd have folders like that on everyone..."  
"We did," Ranma stated, "Someone made the evidence disappear, but, because I took some of it aside to test your loyalties, there's evidence that the investigation did happen..."  
Ranma then took out a picture, Kasumi going pale as Nabiki looked at it just outside earshot. "How, When?!" Kasumi babbled, "I would never..."  
"You agreed to do one roll of pictures as a sweetening deal," Ranma stated, "You likely only remembered that you showed her the folder since you had it, but I bet you feel like there's a gap in your recollections now..."  
"What startled me is that I know those are pictures by Nabiki, she has a specific style..." Kasumi stated, "I also know you'd never let her take pictures of me if it wasn't for a good reason,"  
"Damn, Kasumi… You should do this as a side-job..." Nabiki offered, "30/30/40, I take the largest share,"  
"I do..." Kasumi pouted, "Where do you think half the money in there came from..."  
"Keep any pictures out of the hands of the Kuno family, or anyone else that could use it for blackmail, and you have a deal..." Ranma stated, Kasumi pausing for a moment before nodding.

"Damn! He kept some of it aside," Happosai growled, "And it's only strengthened his closeness to the older Tendos… Get the pictures and the contract, then cease their influence on this world…"  
The figure stroked the thick folder. Ranma could bury him in a moment if he rebuilt it. Right now, everything he had was in temporal stasis, but if he did something foolish, it would restore a lot of things, as he studied a stack of exams and coursework that 'did not get filed' by Kasumi, which had caused her to leave behind a straight-A student lifestyle for becoming the 'mother' to her sisters and father.  
"No, Forget that... He'd just redo the pictures," The figure stated, waiting until midnight, where he caused a small change to the state of the stack, causing it to vanish. Moments later, Kasumi was nowhere near Nerima, and hadn't been for some time, having gone abroad for college, and was currently in New York State University.  
However, he didn't notice that the same error in his modifications that saw Nabiki's folder remain... had meant a stack of pictures wrapped in a very generous modelling contract remained at the bottom of the alcove, effectively forgotten...


End file.
